The German sociologist Georg Simmel asked: “If love continues to exist in a relationship between persons, why does it need faithfulness?” Love alone should be enough. Is loyalty a distinct kind of bond, more durable than love? If so, are the reasons for being faithful different from those for loving? In Professor Konstan's talk, he will suggest that in classical Greece and Rome, love and loyalty were in fact more closely associated than they are today. Examples will be drawn from texts by Aristotle, Cicero, Euripides, and Edward Albee.
David Konstan is Professor of Classics at New York University; he previously taught at Brown University and Wesleyan University. His research focuses on ancient Greek and Latin literature, especially comedy and the novel, and classical philosophy. In recent years, he has investigated the emotions and value concepts of classical Greece and Rome, and has written books on friendship, pity, the emotions, and forgiveness. He has also written on ancient physics and atomic theory, and on literary theory, and is currently working on a book on the ancient Greek conception of beauty, and on a verse translation of the two Senecan tragedies about Hercules. He has been President of the American Philological Association, and is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
